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Jim Brown purchased land in Section 25 of Battle Township, Ida County, Iowa, on October 10, 1873. On March 29, 1874, he came back to live on the farm. James Brown was born in Perry County, Ohio, January 16, 1843. He was from a family of 13 children, nine sons and 4 daughters.

His father was John Brown and he was born in 1800 in Waterford County, Ireland, and at the age of 15 came to the United States, landing at New Orleans. He worked for 7 years in the Carolinas and Georgia, and then located in Perry County, Ohio, where he married Mary Clark who came here to the United States from Ireland when a little girl. He came to Jackson County, Iowa, and settled on what was then the frontier. John passed away in 1862.

Jim Brown learned his school lessons in a little log schoolhouse in Jackson County. At the age of 25 he married Margaret, settled on a farm in that county and farmed there until 1874. Then he came to Ida County and settled on wild land. He plowed the first furrow ever broken in the western part of the county in Battle Township. Wolves and deer were plenty all around. There was not a house between his farm and Judge John H. Moorehead’s land at the grove of trees where Moorehead had built a log cabin. This log cabin had the logs removed from the outside in the 1860s and the logs were replaced with boards. The post office was located at the Moorehead’s home and stage stop, and it was called “Ida.”

Jim Brown served three years as the county supervisor, he filled all the Battle Township offices, and was the Township Trustee. The road going pass his farm was nicknamed, “The Jim Brown Road.” The rural schoolhouse, Battle No. 7, was called, “The Jim Brown School.”